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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Good Morning and Welcome to Day 6 of "Paula Deen week" Today's recipe isGorilla Bread. I thought it turned out wonderful. The cream cheese center was the topper for me, so sinful. If you don't know what Gorilla Bread is, it's really just a mega version of Monkey Bread. If you have never made it then you don't know what you are missing.

Monkey Bread is a sticky, gooey pastry served as a breakfast treat. Recipes for this bread first appeared in American women's magazines and community cookbooks in the 1950s. It is made with pieces of sweet yeast dough which are baked in a cake pan at high heat after first being individually covered in melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar and chopped pecans.

Monkey Bread is traditionally served hot so that the baked segments can be easily torn away with the fingers and eaten by hand without any utensils just like a monkey. Now just think about Monkey Bread for a second and now imagine it ten times better…… And you will have “Gorilla Bread”.

I couldn't imagine anything better than Monkey Bread. Well that all changed after I had my first bite. It was another OMYGOODNESS moment. I never thought Monkey bread could be topped, but as Paula Deen says..... Gorilla Bread kick’s Monkey Breads butt!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it’s TRUE. Lets go ahead and get started.

Start by pre heating the oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar over low heat, stirring well;

The butter and brown sugar mixture so be smooth, creamy and all butter melted. Set aside

Cut the cream cheese into 20 equal cubes.mix the sugar and cinnamon together and set aside.

Press the biscuits out with your fingers and sprinkle each with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar. Place a cube of cream cheese in the center of each biscuit, wrapping and sealing the dough around the cream cheese so it looks like a ball.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bottom of the bundt pan sprayed with baking spray. Place half of the prepared biscuits in the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

pour half of the melted butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle on 1/2 cup of nuts. Layer the remaining biscuits on top, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, pour the remaining butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts. Bake for 30 minutes

Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Place a plate on top and invert. Cool and serve. I drizzled a powdered sugar glaze over the gorilla bread before serving to make it that much better Ü (powdered sugar, vanilla extract, butter and milk) mix together until it's the consistency you want, drizzle over warm bread and serve.

Place a cube of cream cheese in the center of each biscuit, wrapping and sealing the dough around the cream cheese. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bottom of the bundt pan. Place half of the prepared biscuits in the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, pour half of the melted butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle on 1/2 cup of nuts.

Layer the remaining biscuits on top, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, pour the remaining butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Place a plate on top and invert.

If you missed our previous recipes for "Paula Deen Week"click on the links below to view the previous recipes:

Hi Teresa thanks for the comment. Monkey Bread has definitly grown up. It turned out fantastic and the cream cheese took it over the top. You gotta try it. Paula Deen is my absolute favorite i guess its the whole southern thing about her. I love her food.

Tina, Thanks so much for doing these Paula Deen recipes. I am so excited because I can easily adjust about half of them to work with my son's food allergies. I already have my list, just waiting for the weather to cool down to get baking.

I'm so glad Paula week is over I love her food but I'm gonna have to go to the gym twice a day just to burn off the calories from this week.It was so worth it though,I've never had Gorilla Bread it was Yummmmmmy thanks girl

I love monkey bread and came across the gorilla take on a fav recipe. However, I now live in the UK and do not know what to substitute the biscuite dough with - this of course is easier than making up your own dough. Any ideas??

Do they sell frozen roll dough? I think that would be a great substitue. You might have to let it rise a bit after you arrange everything in the budnt pan, because the roll dough has yeast in it. That is all that comes to mind unless they sell crescent roll dough in a can.

Another great recipe!! I have made these twice, once for my family amd another for some friends. They all wanted the recipe and made them for their family. The big question from my friends was what the filling in the rolls was? I also introduced them to your site and of course love it..Thanks Tina!!!

Tina, you and Christy(Southern Plate) have awakened my love of cooking and baking! We are empty nester's, and when I bake, of course I want to eat it, love of sweets is in my genes! I love your recipes, and Paula's Gorilla Bread sounds fantastic! I think that you need to work on a cookbook, it would be a success, I'm sure. Thanks for your blog. JoyceT.